Google Music...What is it?

If you're a fan of digital music you have no doubt heard of Google's attempt to become a player in the music sector; Google Music.  How?  By making "cloud storage" available for storing a user's music collection.  That user could then you any Android device running Android 2.2 "Froyo" or higher.

So why would you want to use it?  Simple, if you have a music collection ranging from just a few songs to a huge library of music files, than you know what kind of pain it is to sync up your iPod or music player to make sure you have that music with you.  Personally, I have an iPod Touch that I despise plugging into my computer to sync with iTunes.  iTunes is cumbersome and slow (in my opinion).  With Google Music, simply point the Google Music Manager client to the folder(s) where you store your music locally on your computer and it will scan the directories and start uploading the music it finds to the "cloud".

With the music being stored on a server somewhere in a Google datacenter, you can then use any computer that has internet access, running Windows XP and up, Mac OS X 10.5+, or about any of the popular Linux distro's to then playback your music library.  If you have an Android phone or tablet that is running at least Android 2.2 "Froyo" than you also have access via the Google Music app for playback on those devices.

What are the drawbacks?  First and foremost, pricing.  Google has yet to release a pricing scheme for this service.  With Amazon currently offering a solution that ranges about $25 a year, and Apple is sure to have a solution on the way as well, Google hasn't drawn their line in the digital sand yet.  Secondly, in order to get the music from your computer to their storage servers you have to upload it.  If you have a huge library, this will obviously take some time.  Third, you are restricted to accessing your full library (once uploaded) to area's where you have internet access.  For smartphone user's this isn't such a big deal (you'll have to worry more about your data caps with your mobile provider).  However, for owner's off WiFi only tablets (like myself) I'll only be able to access my library from one of several places I commonly use for WiFi (I've yet to adopt any kind of MiFi access points).

So, if you have an extensive music collection or just a few songs you'd like to access from the office why not take a look at Google Music.  Right now the service is in Beta so it's an invite only basis.

Check it out: Google Music: http://music.google.com